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Detention raises question of rights

A Prague professor, held by police as a possible threat, tells his side of the story

By Kimberly Hiss
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 21st, 2008 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Mark Tomass was reported by a fellow bus passenger for typing the words "Al Jazeera."
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“I was minding my own business,” said professor Mark Tomass of the uneventful start to a familiar bus ride from Brno, south Moravia, to Prague. But, when police boarded and detained Tomass after the words “Al Jazeera” had been spotted on his laptop computer screen by a fellow passenger, his business ceased to be his own.
Director of business programs at the University of New York in Prague, Tomass is a Syrian-born American who lived in Boston before moving to the Czech Republic nine years ago.
After teaching a regular class at Brno’s Masaryk University May 6, Tomass boarded a Student Agency bus back to Prague. As usual, a stewardess served coffee, passengers such as the middle-aged man next to him went back and forth to the restroom, and Tomass worked on his laptop, that morning revising a paper titled “Al Jazeera and the Decline of Secular Ideology.”
When the bus stopped, however, Tomass looked up to realize they were not at their Florenc destination, but instead being held at the Roztyly station. About half of the passengers exited, and Tomass noticed the middle-aged passenger who’d been seated next to him talking to three policemen outside. When one of the officers then boarded and asked Tomass to step out of the bus, the professor grabbed his bag and followed, unable to imagine what the problem was.
Once outside, the three officers informed Tomass that the passenger next to him had called the police after seeing the words “Al Jazeera” on his computer screen.
Tomass confirmed that, yes, he had been writing about Al Jazeera and explained why.
“I immediately told them I was a university professor, gave them my card, said I was writing a paper, and I asked what was wrong with that.”
According to Tomass, the officer asked for his passport, then started to fill out a report and made a call to initiate a background check.
While the bus was held at the stop, Tomass asked why he was being detained even after he had explained the situation. He added that the passenger who made the report must have been “ignorant” to feel threatened by the mere appearance of the words “Al Jazeera,” the name of an Arabic television station headquartered in Qatar. He asked how such an unfounded fear by an ordinary citizen could warrant his detention and background check, and was told by the officers that any such call about a perceived threat had to be investigated.
“I don’t see how he could have in any way felt I was a threat to national security, to the bus or to the passengers,” Tomass countered. “And I don’t particularly look aggressive either.”
Tomass argued with each of the officers in turn, asking what right they had to detain him, and requesting a written record of the incident, which he says he was denied. Once the background check was completed, his passport was returned.
The 20-minute incident ended with Tomass getting back on the bus, which proceeded to the Florenc stop. On the way, he could hear the words “Al Jazeera” circulating among the passengers.
“In a civilized world, you should not have something like this happening,” he said. “It can happen in war zones, but why here?”
Making assumptions
Aside from worrying about a police system that allows three officers to spend time on what he considers an “absolutely unnecessary” incident, Tomass is concerned about the reasons behind his detention.
“They think: He has long hair, he has dark skin, he must be al-Qaida,” he said of the assumptions he fears are made by the public. But, when considering a fuller profile, he points out the ridiculousness of such hasty conclusions.
“Most people actually assume I’m Spanish. I have an American passport, and I was writing a paper in English.”
Prague department of the State Police spokeswoman Dana Slabochová confirmed the incident and said the case had been “closed without any further investigation necessary.” She added only that, procedurally, it was the duty of the involved officers to act as they did. “Patrols have to respond to all emergency calls received by the 158 emergency line.”
But it’s the basis of that initial report that remains of concern to Tomass.
“They were convinced that I was a threat based on the fact that one man saw one name,” he said.  
— Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Kimberly Hiss can be reached at news@praguepost.com


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Reader's comments:

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[18:11 21/05/2008] : Why do we continue to be surprised by such tactics?
Global society continues to see another abuse by the police under the guise of "security". I wonder what excuses Hitler's henchmen used when they started screening the actions of its people.
And what about Sadaam's police or that of the Americans...all for the sake of security. Freedom of speech or expression...is that a past-time long gone by?
Is it a pipe dream that was suggested to us by some school teacher of the past? Where did it come from? Is it fact or fiction? Someone might suggest that freedoms of speech or expression are OK only when they are appropriate.
Well...who is to determine the criterion for what is appropriate? I say let's forget the whole thing. You had better keep your thoughts to yourself, because the moron next to you is thinking "God knows what" and will probably condemn you anyway if you are not on the same page as he is politically.
Al Jazeera, New York Times, or Prague Post...Does it really matter any more? Perhaps, we are all terrorists.
The Czech police are not "Charles University grads"...so go figure. When they hold up the stupid little red sign, you stop and be courteous...listen, say, yes, sir, and try to be in control of your emotions.
Once the incident passes, you go on with life having learned through experience the fiasco I refer to as the "Czech Police Cabaret".
I challenge others to share their experiences with the security conscious...
john clark
houston
[19:21 22/05/2008] : Such over-reactions happen in places like New York, too.
The man sitting next to him, who probably didn't understand English well enough to understand what the Syrian-American was typing and who could be forgiven for his ignorance, believed, albeit mistakenly, that he was observing "suspicious activity," and so he did his civic duty and reported it.
The police simply responded to the phone call they received from the panicked Czech passenger who unnecessarily suspected the professor of terrorism. So, the police did their job as they had been trained to do it. Upon discovering that the man was not a threat in any way whatsoever, and that the panicking by the other passenger hadn't been necessary, they allowed the professor to continue on his journey in that very same bus.
Perhaps he was lucky.
In the United States, Muslim men have been arrested and denied the right to fly, just because of passengers complaining to flight attendants about seeing Muslims praying at an airport gate.
Perhaps the cops who responded to the emergency cell phone call also felt it was silly, but they were doing their jobs by investigating.
Jesse Lynch
Bayonne, NJ
[09:34 23/05/2008] : Sad times we live in, but after the London bus bombings not so long ago, one can hardly blame the Czech police for being extra vigilant.
The public needs to stay on its guard and be prepared to perhaps look stupid when people get their concerns wrong.
I don't think this incident is surprising - even though it must have been annoying for Mark Tomass at the time
Richard James
Prague
[21:46 23/05/2008] : Clearly the man on the bus and the police officers involved are simply ignorant. To associate a word with something 'scary' is one thing, but to see that word and assume the professor is a threat simply makes no sense.
The Prague police presumably had a busy time the morning this article was printed!
Matt Anon
Doha
[12:32 25/05/2008] : First, why would an "Islamic terrorist" write in English on a laptop in a public space like this? Was a background check necessary after the situation was explained? After the bus got under way, which would mean that there was no problem, how come no one on the bus talked to him?

I recently read that a huge number of Czechs would have a problem even have Arabs (or perhaps Muslims) as neighbors. (Never mind that a sizable minority of Arabs are Christians). Though most people are against it, I know (seemingly) perfectly intelligent, independent minded people in Prague who want the radar base, because they say Palestinians might attack the country with a missile.

The main problem is that so many people here - and not just here - are ignorant and/or xenophobic, as always.
Todd Edelman
Prague
[19:43 25/05/2008] : Inefficiency as usual ,
plus a prefect hysteria.
Xenophobia plus ignorance.....
whether the public or the police.............
Shame !! on both
Raja Chemayel
Prague
[09:19 27/05/2008] : The cops were doing their jobs. There is nothing wrong with the investigation they initiated.
If something like this would have happened in the United States, the professor would be detained!
Unknown
Prague
[09:55 27/05/2008] : So, the police were doing their job, and the professor feels victimized? Well, sometimes sacrifices need to be made.
Not that I think necessarily that being detained for 20 minutes is a sacrifice.
The police have a job to do, and their job is to react to what they are told.
If some ignorant (or perhaps not having a great grasp of English) passenger calls the police about a suspected terrorist, the police should not be blamed for doing their jobs...
They did, and then the professor was free to go on his way.
The real problem here is two-fold: general ignorance and fear-mongering of the public coupled with the woe-is-me victimization of adopted citizens tendency towards self-victimization.
There, I said it.
Bhuark Starkiller
Atlanta
[15:57 27/05/2008] : "the London bus bombings not so long ago, one can hardly blame the Czech police for being extra vigilant."

Eh...so in one country a few bombs go off and four Muslims are framed. And from then on, all dark-skinned people are to be regarded as a possible threat?

It's sad to see how easily people are brainwashed by their governments.
Alexander Williams
Olomouc
[10:02 28/05/2008] : Well, unfortunately, that's the world we live in right now....and we will just have to accept the way things are! Welcome to the club!
Unknown
Prague
[10:16 28/05/2008] : If all of you foreigner respondents to this article think that Czechs are so xenophobic and ignorant, maybe you should move back to where you came from!
Unknown
Prague
[02:14 29/05/2008] : Every country and society has its share of xenophobia in both conscious and subconscious forms. Why single out the Czech Republic? Ever since 9/11, but in some places even before it, there has been a fear of terrorism. Daily as I travel on the PATH trains to New York City to go to work, there are announcements everyone is forced to listen to asking passengers to be on the look out for "suspicious persons" and "suspicious activities". Do you believe those announcements are racist? If the news media points out that the majority of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, is that racist? Had they been white Americans like McVeigh instead and had the news media pointed such a fact out, would that be just as racist?

Of course the Czech passenger on the bus over-reacted, but that doesn't mean he is xenophobic. He was simply anxious and uncomfortable without reason. The news makes people afraid. The police certainly were not xenophobic just because they didn't refuse to come when the Czech passenger called the police, because when someone suspects a crime and calls the police, the police are supposed to investigate. That's all they did, but the man hadn't done anything wrong, so they let him go. In America, I think he might have been treated much worse.

Don't be so quick to stereotype all Czech people as racists and xenophobes. Most Czechs are not really.
Jesse Lynch
Bayonne, NJ
[14:15 17/06/2008] : Opinions vary and they differ depending on one's personal experience...
Nevertheless, idiocy and inefficiency cannot become a compliment.
The first guilty person was that passenger.
The next time I take a Czech bus, I shall open a porno page on my lap-top....or some Czech news about daily and local corruption cases !
I bet you that same passenger would not even notice it.
Raja Chemayel
amsterdam
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